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memfd-bind: mention that overlayfs obviates the need for it
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Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <[email protected]>
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cyphar committed Nov 4, 2024
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13 changes: 12 additions & 1 deletion contrib/cmd/memfd-bind/README.md
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## memfd-bind ##

`runc` normally has to make a binary copy of itself when constructing a
> **NOTE**: Since runc 1.2.0, runc will now use a private overlayfs mount to
> protect the runc binary. This protection is far more light-weight than
> memfd-bind, and for most users this should obviate the need for `memfd-bind`
> entirely. Rootless containers will still make a memfd copy (unless you are
> using `runc` itself inside a user namespace -- a-la
> [`rootlesskit`][rootlesskit]), but `memfd-bind` is not particularly useful
> for rootless container users anyway (see [Caveats](#Caveats) for more
> details).
`runc` sometimes has to make a binary copy of itself when constructing a
container process in order to defend against certain container runtime attacks
such as CVE-2019-5736.

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container process setup takes up about 10MB per process spawned inside the
container by runc (both pid1 and `runc exec`).

[rootlesskit]: https://github.com/rootless-containers/rootlesskit

### Caveats ###

There are several downsides with using `memfd-bind` on the `runc` binary:
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